Cultivating an Education

Cerridwen Farm is a student-motivated campus farm, integrating essential hands-on learning with our liberal arts education. We are committed to our soil health, the wellbeing of our farm animals, the importance of food justice and the needs of future generations, and we demonstrate this commitment in every product we produce and every practice we undertake.

Cerridwen farm is a small-scale diversified animal and vegetable farm on the southwestern corner of Green Mountain College’s campus. Surrounding the historic barn and farm buildings are three vegetable fields totaling nearly two acres, and fifteen acres of pasture. The farm is operated with the physical and mental prowess and inspiration of GMC students, with the guidance of faculty mentorship and under the leadership of the farm manager. We use the farm as a way to practice, apply and explore what we learn in the classroom. Chores are open to everyone who would like to take part in the working farm experience and farm crew members are included in the important (and not-so important) decision-making inherent on any farm, allowing for greater transparency and likelier achievement of goals.

We use our farm to make an impact, setting and living the example of sustainability and environmental integrity, adopting and evolving the examples set forth by those before us.

Good Eats in Good Conscience

Cerridwen provides a variety of Vermont-certified organic vegetables to the campus dining hall, as well as to our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) members and to the local community at nearby farmers’ markets. We also practice animal husbandry on the farm, producing raw milk, eggs, pork and beef. Unlike large-scale “factory” farming, which takes an anthropocentric view of animals by treating them like machines, we recognize the importance of all the animals that we work with from a systems perspective, whereby everything is equal in value.

The Next Generation

Fresh. Nutritious. Affordable. Locally grown with care for the well-being of the land, workers, and animals. We see Food Justice as an essential part of our farm’s existence, and our educational platform. From Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems majors to those who merely helped out once or twice with harvest, lambing or egg collection, the experiences we have here are lasting and profound. Alumni go on to start their own farms, run sustainable agriculture businesses or simply shop ethically. Green Mountain College and Cerridwen Farm are working to provide education and expertise, not only to feed ourselves today but to benefit future generations of people, animals and land.